Sir David Lindsay

c.1486–1555

Introduction

The few extant manuscripts of works by Sir David Lindsay are all collated or described in Hamer. None is in Lindsay's own hand. What appears to be the only authentic surviving example of his handwriting is a letter he sent to the Scottish Secretary from Antwerp in 1531 (*LiD 13).

One other reported example of his signature is on a printed book, Lucanus cum tribus comm[entariis]: M. Annei Lucani Cordubensis Pharsalia diligentissime per G. Versellanum recognita (Lyons, 1519), offered at Sotheby's, 3-4 February 1851, lot 277. This is recorded in Mark English, Lost Autographs of John Skelton, David Lyndsay, and Thomas More?, N&Q, 248 (December 2003), 385. Although it may well have been owned and signed by the writer, neither the book's absence nor the number of David Lindsays who flourished in this period make for any degree of certainty.

For information about other early documents relating to Lindsay, see Hamer, IV, 241-77.

Abbreviations

Hamer: The Works of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount 1490-1555, ed. Douglas Hamer, 4 vols, STS 3rd Ser. 1, 2, 6, 8 (Edinburgh & London, 1930-4).

Verse

The Complaynt of Schir Dauid Lindesay ('Schir, I beseik thyne Excellence')

First published [in Edinburgh, 1529-30?]. Hamer, I, 39-53.

LiD 1 c.1563-6

Copy, in the cursive secretary hand of David Anderson of Aberdeen.

This MS described in Hamer, IV, 8-11.

A folio composite volume of Scottish verse, chiefly in three secretary hands, with rubrication, written from both ends (Part I: ff. 1-367; Part II: ff. 1-146, a title-page dated 1566), in contemporary calf on wooden boards gilt.

Inscribed (f. 2r) W. hay. 1527; (f. 1^r) This buik partinis to david andersone burger of abirdene, be gift of M^r W^m hay person of turrest. 1563.; and (f. 2r) a record of the gift of the MS to Edinburgh College by John Aikman, son of William Aikman.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dk. 7. 49 Part II, ff. 118r-24r)

The Deploratioun of the Deith of Quene Magdalene ('O Cruell Deith, to greit is thy puissance')

First published [Edinburgh, 1537]. Hamer, I, 105-12.

LiD 2 c.1563-6

Copy, in the cursive secretary hand of David Anderson of Aberdeen.

This MS described in Hamer, IV, 8-11.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dk. 7. 49 Part II, ff. 125r-7v)

LiD 3

Copy, as the XXVIII Chapter of the Cronicle.

Edited from this MS in Pitscottie's Chronicles of Scotland, ed. A.J.G. Mackay, I, STS 42 (Edinburgh & London, 1899), 370-6, and described pp. lxxx-lxxxiv. Collated in Hamer, III, 119.

A copy of the verse Historie and Cronicles of Scotland by Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie, in a single professional secretary hand, x + 175 folio leaves, in contemporary reversed calf.

c.1598

Bookplate of Viscount Cholmondeley. Phillipps MS 3107. Owned in 1896 by John Scott, CB, of Halkshill. Among the muniments of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, formerly in the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

National Library of Scotland, other MSS (MS Acc. 9769 84/1/1 ff. 83v-5r)

Ane Descriptioun of Peder Coffeis having na Ragaird till honestie in thair vocatioun ('It is my purpoiss to discryve')

First published in Allan Ramsay, The Ever Green (Edinburgh, 1724), II, 219-22. Hamer, I, 389-92.

LiD 4

Copy, subscribed ffinis [p Lindsay in a different hand].

Edited from this MS in Ramsay and in Hamer.

A formal anthology of Scottish poetry, including 51 poems presently attributed to William Dunbar, largely in a single secretary hand, with a few later additions in other hands, in two tall folio volumes, with differing series of pagination and foliation, vol. I comprising 192 leaves (paginated 1-385), vol. II comprising 205 leaves (paginated 387-795), all leaves now mounted separately in window mounts, each volume in 19th-century green morocco elaborately gilt.

Compiled by George Bannatyne (b.1545), student of St Andrews and merchant burgess of Edinburgh. Subscribed on the last page finis. / 1568 but probably written over a period of some years.

c.1568

Descending to Bannatyne's son-in-law George Foulis. Later (c.1712) inscribed (p. 60) This book is gifted to M^r William Carmichael Be me James Foulis. Some annotations by Allan Ramsay (1684-1758), poet and editor, and by Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor. Presented in 1772 by John Carmichael, fourth Earl of Hyndford.

Generally cited as the Bannatyne MS. Complete facsimile, introduced by Denton Fox and William A. Ringler, published by the Scolar Press, 1980. Complete text edited in Murdoch and in Ritchie. Discussed in Priscilla Bawcutt, The Contents of the Bannatyne Manuscript: New Sources and Analogues, Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 3 (2008), 95-133. A facsimile page in The National Library of Scotland Advocates' Library Notable Accessions up to 1925 (Edinburgh, 1965), Plate 43.

National Library of Scotland, Advocates MSS (Adv. MS 1.1.6 Vol. I, f. 162r-v (pp. 383-4))

Ane Dialog betuix Experience and Ane Courteour of the Miserabyll Estait of the Warls (The Monarche) ('Into that Park I sawe appeir')

First published [in St Andrews or Edinburgh, c.1554]. Hamer, I, 197-386.

LiD 5 c.1563-6

Copy, complete with the Epistle to the Reader and Prologue, in the cursive secretary hands of William Hay and David Anderson of Aberdeen, probably transcribed, from a printed edition.

This MS described in Hamer, IV, 8-11.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dk. 7. 49 Part II, ff. 1r-99r)

LiD 6

Copy, in a professional angular secretary hand, with some rubrication, with a title-page or introductory rubric Heir begynnis ane liill dialog betuixt experience and ane Courteoure of the miserabill estait of ye Warld compilit be Schir dauid lindesay of the mont knicht, Lionn king of armis Quhilk is diuidit in foure partis as estir followis begun on thurisday ye 11 of Junij 1556, including (ff. 1r-3r) The Epistill and (ff. 3r-7r) The Prolog, i + 132 small folio leaves, in old calf (rebacked).

1556

This MS described in Hamer, IV, 5-8, and partly collated, III, 233 et seq.

Lambeth Palace Library (MS 332)

The Dreme of Schir Dauid Lyndesay ('Me thocht ane lady, of portratour perfyte')

First published [in Edinburgh, 1528-30?]. Hamer, I, 3-38.

LiD 7 c.1563-6

Copy, complete with the Epistle and Prologue, in the cursive secretary hand of David Anderson of Aberdeen.

This MS described in Hamer, IV, 8-11.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dk. 7. 49 Part II, ff. 99v-118r)

The Historie of Squyer Meldrum ('Quho that Antique Stories reidis')

First published [in Edinburgh, 1579-80?]. Hamer, I, 145-96. Edited by James Kinsley (London & Edinburgh, 1959).

LiD 8

Copy, transcribed from a printed edition by one James Clark of Glasgow.

1631

Later owned by John Pinkerton (1758-1826), by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector, and (in 1836) by J. Bohn.

Recorded in Hamer, IV, 12, and in Kinsley, p. 2.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Clark MS])

The Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo ('Suppose I had Ingyne Angelicall')

First published [in Edinburgh, 1530]. Hamer, I, 55-90.

LiD 9 c.1563-6

Copy, in the cursive secretary hand of David Anderson of Aberdeen, subscribed (f. 144v) with his signature and (f. 145v) his inscription Dauid andersone burges of Aberdene 1563, before verses on f. 146r-v in other hands.

This MS described in Hamer, IV, 8-11.

Edinburgh University Library (MS Dk. 7. 49 Part II, ff. 128r-44v)

Dramatic works

Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis

First published (in Hamer's Version III) in Edinburgh, 1602. Edited by James Kinsley (London, 1954).

The different versions of the play discussed in Anna J. Mill, Representations of Lyndsay's Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, PMLA, 47. i (1932), 636-51, with corrigenda in PMLA, 48 (1933), 315-16; in Raymond A. Houk, Versions of Lindsay's Satire of the Three Estates, PMLA, 55. i (1940), 396-405; in John MacQueen, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, SSL, 3 (1965-6), 129-43; and in Anna Jean Mill, The Original Version of Lindsay's Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, SSL, 6 (1968-9), 67-75.

LiD 10

Extracts, headed Heir begynis the Ploenuratrony of the play, maid be Dauid Lynsayis, of the month Knicht in the Playfeild in the moneth of [space] the yeir of god 155 yeryis, comprising seven long passages (called Interludes), here beginning Richt famous pepill ye sall vnderstand..., in an irregular order, together with the prefatory banns, from a version performed on the Castle Hill, Cupar, Fifeshire, on 7 June 1552.

Edited from this MS (Hamer's Version II), in a parallel text with the 1602 edition, in Hamer, Vol. II; ed. James Kinsley (London, 1954). Also edited from this MS in The Bannatyne Manuscript, Hunterian Club (Glasgow, 1896), iii, 463-597; The Bannatyne Manuscript, ed. W. Tod Ritchie, III, STS NS 23 (1928), 87-238. Discussed in J. Derrick McClure, A Comparison of the Bannatyne MS and the Quarto Texts of Lyndsay's Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, Scottish Studies, 4 (Frankfurt am Main, 1986), 409-22. Facsimile of f. 168r in The British Inheritance: A Treasury of Historic Documents, ed. Elizabeth Hallam and Andrew Prescott (London, 1999), p. 30.

Compiled by George Bannatyne (b.1545), student of St Andrews and merchant burgess of Edinburgh. Subscribed on the last page finis. / 1568 but probably written over a period of some years.

c.1568

National Library of Scotland, Advocates MSS (Adv. MS 1.1.6 Vol. II, ff. 164r-210r (pp. 387-479))

LiD 11

A prose summary of the version performed in the Banquetting Hall in the Palace at Linlithgow before James V and Marie de Lorraine on 6 January 1539/40 (Hamer's Version I), as written by a Protestant Scotsman: (f. 138r-v) a copy, in a secretary hand, headed The copie of the nootes of the interluyde..., together with (f. 137r-v) a covering letter signed by Sir William Eure, to Thomas Cromwell, dated from Berwick Castle, 26 January [1539/40].

Edited from this MS in Hamer, II, 1-6.

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 268 leaves, in half red morocco.

The British Library: Royal MSS (Royal MS 7 C. XVI f. 137r-8v)

LiD 12

A MS of Sir Dauid Lindesay A Satyre of the three Estates.

16th century?

Owned in 1627 by William Drummond of Hawthornden, whose main books and MSS are in Edinburgh University Library and the National Library of Scotland, but the rest dispersed.

Recorded in Drummond's catalogue of his library, Auctarium Bibliothecae Edinburgenae (Edinburgh, 1627), p. 22. See Hamer, IV, 12, and Robert H. MacDonald, The Library of Drummond of Hawthornden (Edinburgh, 1971), No. 1371.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Drummond MS])

Letters

Letter(s)

*LiD 13 1531

Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to the Scottish Secretary, from Antwerp, 23 August 1531.

Edited in Hamer, IV, 255, and, with a facsimile of the signature, in The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, ed. David Laing, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1879), I, xxiv-xxvi. Edited and discussed in Janet Hadley Williams, Of officiaris serving thy senyeorie: David Lyndsay's diplomatic letter of 1531, in A Palace in the Wild: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Scotland (Leuven, 2000), pp. 125-40. Facsimile also in IELM, I.ii, Facsimile XXIV (p. 312).

A folio composite volume of state correspondence, in various hands, c.350 leaves.

The British Library: Cotton MSS (Cotton MS Caligula B. 1 f. 313r)